Archbishop John Nienstedt under investigation for new sexual misconduct claims

The latest allegations of clerical sexual misconduct go all the way to the top of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, falling on the head of Archbishop John Nienstedt.

News broke Tuesday when former top canon lawyer Jennifer Haselberger was quoted in Commonweal, a Catholic lay magazine, saying that she had been questioned by investigators with the Minneapolis firm Greene Espel. It left her with the impression that there "about ten sworn statements alleging sexual impropriety" against the archbishop, spanning his years spent in Detroit, New Ulm, and St. Paul, and involving seminarians, priests, and other men.

In a statement,
Nienstedt denied the allegations "absolutely" but said he ordered the
examination of himself in fairness. He was adamant: "The allegations do
not involve minors or lay members of the faithful, and they do not
implicate any kind of illegal or criminal behavior."

In a separate interview he gave to Commonweal, the archbishop explained
that one of the allegations involved him improperly touching another
priest's neck.

The only name that's been dropped so far is that of Curtis Wehmeyer, a convicted pedophile. Haselberger said investigators asked her about an "unprofessional" relationship between Nienstedt and Wehmeyer.

If true, claims of sexual advance on other men make Nienstedt, at the
very least, a hypocrite. This is the same person who once told a
conflicted mother that her "eternal salvation" was at risk because she
so badly wanted to accept her gay son for who he was.

The new allegations, though they surfaced around the same time, are
reportedly unrelated to another allegation that Nienstedt touched a
boy's butt during a confirmation photoshoot. In March, St. Paul police
cleared the archbishop of wrongdoing in that case, then quickly reopened it.